NYC: Anti-establishment mayoral candidate assesses Spitzer

"Political establishment" is one of those subjectively defined terms that gets tossed around by Eliot Spitzer when he says what he's running against. Perhaps nobody this season is more of a genuine political maverick than low-polling mayoral candidate Sal Albanese, who pointedly spurns lobbyist and developer money. He often cites the existence of a cozy “political class.” For his part,...

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"Political establishment" is one of those subjectively defined terms that gets tossed around by Eliot Spitzer when he says what he's running against.

Perhaps nobody this season is more of a genuine political maverick than low-polling mayoral candidate Sal Albanese, who pointedly spurns lobbyist and developer money. He often cites the existence of a cozy “political class.”

For his part, Albanese is willing to view Spitzer as separate from City Hall’s inside clique. “He was a prosecutor, not a career politician, and had his own wealth. I don’t think he’s ever been a captive of that class,” Albanese said yesterday — as distinguished from mayoral rival and ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner.

Weiner often asks for a "second chance," though it's his third time raising cash and support on the mayoral circuit, the first time having been when he lost in 2005. He's not asking to go back to Congress first.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn, running for mayor, took off on this phrase yesterday:

“I believe in second chances as much as anybody else. None of us are perfect.”

“But in all aspects of life, particularly in elected life, you have to earn second chances not just ask for them. So, for me the question with both Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer is what have they been doing to earn this second chance."